Nicole Lawson

ENG 1201-515

Mrs. Pedrotti

30 June 2019

Casebook

My research essay will attempt to figure out how we could help lower the instances of

police brutality. It will also try to further understand how victims of police brutality are affected,

and how we could help compensate these victims. I want to try to understand how being a

different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation could heighten your possibility of facing police

brutality. Finally, I will attempt to explore how police departments handle cases of police

brutality and how these officers are punished or reprimanded.

Alang, Sirry, et al. “Police Brutality and Black Health: Setting the Agenda for Public Health

Scholars.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 5, May 2017, pp. 662–

665. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303691.

This article authored by Sirry Alang, Donna McAlpine, Ellen McCreedy, and Rachel Hardeman,

discusses the lasting effects victims of police brutality can experience. It is important to note that

police brutality is not only physical violence against a victim, but it can also take the form of

sexual or emotional abuse. On top of this abuse, to constitute police brutality, it can not be

considered a mistake on the officer’s part, there has to be intent on the officer’s part. A direct

effect that these victims (and their families) can experience is death or injury of the victim. To

elaborate on how race can affect your likelihood of experiencing this, young Black men were

nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers. This is not to say that
if you are white that you are 100% never going to deal with this, however, the chance of it

happening to someone who is white is extremely less, then it happening to someone of color.

This is an academic article that is targeted toward individuals of all ages that are

educated, to understand the potential effects being a victim of police brutality can bring. On top

of this, this article is also trying to get public health scholars to add this to their agenda to study

and help victims of police brutality. They are trying to have public health scholars to try to

discover solutions to how to help stop instances of police brutality, because it is something that is

preventable. This source was published in May of 2017, being as recent as it is, it was able to

include well known instances of police brutality that have spread around social media.

These authors are credible because Sirry Alang is with the Program in Health, Medicine,

and Society and the Department of Sociology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. Donna

McAlpine and Rachel Hardeman are with the Division of Health Policy and Management,

University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis. Ellen McCreedy is with the

Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research, School of Public Health, Brown University,

Providence, RI. Each of these authors knows about the possible effects of police brutality

because they are experts on mental health, they are all educated on this topic. These authors have

adequate information to post this article because they use countless other sources to help to

support their ideas. I know that this source is reliable because it is a peer reviewed source,

meaning that other people went through and made sure none of the points they made were

unfounded.

I will be able to use this article in my research essay because I can use it to help answer

how police brutality effects the victims. On top of this, I can use it to help understand how being
a different race could affect your likelihood of having to go through an instance of police

brutality.

Angus, Jeanelle, and Vaughn Crichlow. “A Race and Power Perspective on Police Brutality in

America.” FAU Undergraduate Research Journal, 15 May 2018,

journals.fcla.edu/faurj/article/view/106404.

This is an academic article that was written by Jeanelle Angus and Vaughn Crichlow that

discusses specific cases that involve police killings of unarmed black males, and the fact that

each officer in all the cases were acquitted of every single charge. As well as discussing these

topics, they also give several suggestions for how we could help lower instances of police

brutality.

This article is targeted towards young Americans, especially minorities, and also to police

departments and perhaps political leaders. By this I mean, they give suggestions for how they

could help fix the epidemic of police brutality, which political leaders would be able to include

in reform suggestions. The purpose of this article is to show a study that the authors did by

analyzing specific cases of police killings of unarmed black males, and possible suggestions to

fix the problem. This article is only a year old, published in May of 2018, meaning that they use

very relevant sources and cases to explain their views on police brutality, and how it affects

minorities.

The authors of this article are credible because they have done research on the topic and have

studied specific cases to write this article. They are both experts on the topic of how police

brutality can affect minorities and social implications that can come from police brutality. They

have adequate information to write this article because they took from specific and public cases

of police killings. They also researched possible ways to help police brutality. I know that this
source is credible because it is an academic article that was originally published to the College of

Design and Social Inquiry, meaning that this article is peer reviewed.

I will use this article in my research essay because I can use it to give possible solutions to the

epidemic that is police brutality. I can also use it to ponder how police officers can be acquitted

for killing unarmed black men, simply because they thought they had reasonable suspicion. I can

also use this article to prove the point that there needs to be reform if we are going to help solve

police brutality.

Hudson, Adam, “Families of Police Violence Victims Face Trauma Without Support.” Truthout,

truthout.org/articles/families-of-murdered-black-men-deal-with-trauma-channel-anger/.

This is an article written by Adam Hudson that discusses how the police killings of young

unarmed black people have affected the family of the victims. The sad truth is that we hear about

a case of a police killing all over social media, however, after a week the news moves on and

usually forgets the victim and the victim’s family. These families are affected for the rest of their

lives after their loved one was killed; they cannot just forget about what happened like the rest of

us might be able to. This article gives first-hand accounts of how these killings are still to this

day affecting the families.

This article is targeted to every American in the country, they are trying to make sure that you do

not forget that these families are still grieving, many of them were never even given justice for

the death of their loved one. This article was published in June of 2015, so it is still recent,

however, it does not account for families that have been affected since this article was published.

This author is credible because they are a writer for the Truthout news outlet, on top of this, the

author quotes statements that come straight from the voice of the family members affected.
I can use this article in my essay because it explains how these families are still affected today

and they are not given much support. In many cases, they were not even given justice for the

wrongful death of their loved ones, it is likely that the officer will be acquitted of the charges.

Keesee, Tracie. “How Police and the Public Can Create Safer Neighborhoods Together.” TED,

June 2018.

www.ted.com/talks/tracie_keesee_how_police_and_the_public_can_create_safer_neighb

orhoods_together?language=en.

This is a Ted talk that was done by a female police officer named Tracie Keesee. Keesee was a

police officer for 25 years and she learned as she went about how police mistrust amongst

communities, particularly African American communities is detrimental for everyone involved.

She offers a solution to help with the mistrust amongst these two, communication and working

together.

This Ted talk is also targeted toward police departments across America, police officers, and

community members throughout the whole country. The purpose is to offer her perspective on

how communication and working together with the communities will help to rebuild the trust

among police officers and the communities that they serve. She agrees that reform should be

done in the way that police do their job, they need to be better trained in order to make sure that

they are equipped to handle the pressure and stress that comes with being a police officer.

The speaker is credible because she was a police officer for 25 years and she was able to see the

system inside and out and was able to determine that it needs reform. She is credible because she

has a first-hand account for what works and what does not work in building trust among

communities and police officers that serve them.

I can use this Ted talk in my essay to convey that police officers agree that reform needs to

happen in order to rebuild the trust among them and their communities, particularly African

American communities. I can use this to say that a way to help rebuild the trust is to make sure

that officers and community members are communicating and working together to solve issues

as they arise.

Lacoe, Johanna, and Jillian Stein. “Exploring the Policy Implications of High‐Profile Police

Violence.” Criminology & Public Policy, vol. 17, no. 4, Nov. 2018, pp. 859–

863. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12410.

This is an academic article authored by Johanna Lacoe and Jillian Stein that discusses different

things that can happen to a community once someone experiences police brutality. They ponder

the questions of how these high-profile instances can affect someone’s likelihood to call the

police for help, and if these instances lead to an increase in criminal behavior. The authors go on

to explore how seeing a situation of police brutality can be a stressor for people in the affected

neighborhood.

This article is targeted towards younger individuals who are educated and are exploring the

effects of police brutality. The purpose of this article is to educate people on how instances of

police abuse can affect more then just the victim and their family. It can have an extreme

negative effect on people in the surrounding community and people all around the country. This

article is extremely relevant, it was published a few months ago in December of 2018. This

means that they are using new relevant information and sources in order to bring the point that

police brutality has a bigger effect then we might originally think.

The authors are Johanna Lacoe and Jillian Stein, as I said above, they are credible authors

because they are both educated on these topics and dedicate their research to the justice system.

Lacoe is deputy director of justice research and analytics. She is a policy scholar in the fields of

criminal and juvenile justice and provides program and evaluation technical assistance to staff

and leadership in criminal justice and education agencies. Stein is a researcher at Mathematica

Policy Research. Her research is focused on criminal and juvenile justice, employment, and data

collection with hard‐to‐reach populations. These authors have adequate information to write this

article because they have both done extensive research into the topic and continue to research the

topic. I know that this source is credible because it comes from EBSCOhost and the article is

peer reviewed.

I can use this article to ponder the ideas that police brutality not only negatively affects the

victims, but also the surrounding community. In this article, they also take about how when a

person of color is affected by police brutality, people of color across the country are negatively

affected. I can use this to explain that these minorities have to constantly be aware that police can

abuse their power at any moment against them.

Russell, Melvin. “I Love Being a Police Officer, but We Need Reform.” TED,

www.ted.com/talks/melvin_russell_i_love_being_a_police_officer_but_we_need_reform

?language=en.

This is a Ted talk that was done by a police officer named Melvin Russell, who admitted that the

justice system needed reform. Change needed to be done in order to help build the trust amongst

the officers and the communities they serve. They needed to change how they were policing, in

order to make sure that instances of police brutality and racial profiling would go down. He
offers that officers and departments need to start listening to the communities that they serve,

instead of not involving them in how to police their community.

This Ted talk is targeted toward various police departments across America, as well as people of

all ages across America. The purpose of this is to explain how we train law enforcement officers

needs to be reformed, we cannot leave it the way that it is currently and expect instances of

police brutality and police killings go down. The suggestion Russell offers is to have law

enforcement officials get together with the community they serve and let them have a say in the

process of justice. Let the community members have a say in how the law enforcement officers

protect and serve their community.

Melvin Russell is extremely credible because he was a police officer and he has seen the system

from the inside and outside and can admit that it needs to be reformed. He has adequate

information because he has seen various things being an officer and he knows of specific cases

that have been wrongfully done.

I can use this Ted talk in my research essay to further prove the point that the system needs to be

reformed if we are going to expect any changes to occur. There needs to be changes in how we

train law enforcement officers so that they will be able to better protect and serve their

communities.

Thurau, Lisa H., and Johanna Wald. “Police Killings, Brutality Damaging Mental Health of

Black Community.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 15 Sept. 2018,

www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2018/09/14/police-brutality-

damaging-black-communitys-mental-health/1218566002/.

This is an article that was posted on the USA Today Newspaper, written by Lisa Thurau and

Johanna Wald. This article discusses how police brutality is negatively affecting minorities all
across America, and how the high rate of police brutality against blacks is causing more reported

incidents of depression, stress, and other mental health issues among African Americans. These

incidents are even affecting African Americans who have no connection with these victims. The

authors also give a suggestion for a reform that could help change the likelihood of these

instances happening.

This article is targeted towards young members of minorities, and young people in general to

inform them on how these instances of police killings are affecting the mental health of people

across America. This article is also targeted towards political leaders because they offer the

possible reform for police officers that would make it to where officers are educated on the

effects of trauma, poverty, and violence have on criminal behavior. On top of this they will also

have an understanding on how their potential biases can directly affect actions, especially under

stress. This article was published in September of 2018, so again it uses very recent and relevant

sources to better understand these cases of police killings and possible reform that needs to be

done.

The article is written by Lisa Thurau and Johanna Wald, these authors are credible because

Thurau is the founder and executive director of Strategies for Youth, a national nonprofit training

and policy organization dedicated to improving police/youth interactions and reducing

disproportionate minority contact. Wald Johanna Wald is a writer and researcher who has written

extensively about the school to prison pipeline and criminal and juvenile justice reform. She is

the former director of strategic planning for the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute at Harvard

Law School. These authors have adequate information because they pull from cases that

happened around the time they wrote and published the article, and they use other sources to

make their point on police brutality.

I can use this article in my research essay because they give a different example of how we could

reform the current system that basically allows these killings to occur. They also use adequate

information to show how the instances of police killings can affect the mental health of the

victims, their families, as well as the individuals in the community and beyond.